Andy Balaam

Why I don't use AI

https://accu.org/journals/overload/33/190/balaam/

Why I Don’t Use AI

Many people are embracing GenAI. Andy Balaam encourages us to pause and think about why this might not be a good idea.

Dec 10 at 3:24pmWeb
Show threadGnuxie 💜🐝 Dec 10
> They don’t do what the billionaires claim they do: researchers found that open source developers were 19% less productive when using AI tools [Becker25], and a UK study showed no productivity gain [Kunert25].

n16, "We caution readers against overgeneralizing on the basis of our results. The slowdown we observe does not imply that current AI tools do not often improve developer’s productivity"
Show threadGnuxie 💜🐝 Dec 10
@andybalaam I think AI needs to be approached with caution, and we have the usual ethical concerns with anything touching tech startups. But i think people aren't being thorough enough about the claims on productivity etc.
Show threadGnuxie 💜🐝 Dec 11
@andybalaam https://branchfree.org/2024/11/25/the-environment-will-be-saved-if-we-just-avoid-doing-icky-things/
The Environment will Be Saved if We Just Avoid Doing Icky Things

[ I’m breaking from my usual technical posts, since I have some wonderful news to share with you all; opinions mine, not those of my employer, etc. ] For readers of elevated left-leaning publ…

Branch Free
Show threadGert, ZL2AW 🇳🇿Dec 11
So agree with you @andybalaam about not using AI : https://accu.org/journals/overload/33/190/balaam/
Well said !!
Why I Don’t Use AI

Many people are embracing GenAI. Andy Balaam encourages us to pause and think about why this might not be a good idea.

Show threadVegOSDec 11
@andybalaam The only thing, I had to disable JavaScript for your site. Bad idea to store my decision about cookies in a cookie. Cookies blocked and I do not need such loops!
Show threadAndy BalaamDec 11

@vegos_f06 this is the journal's site, not mine.

My site has no cookies 🙂 https://artificialworlds.net/blog/2025/12/10/why-i-dont-use-ai-expanded/

Why I don't use AI (expanded) | Andy Balaam's Blog

Andy Balaam's Blog
Show threadjnr in lifeJan 7

@andybalaam I've been thinking about some of this a lot recently. I was paying for a personal subscription for a few months to play around with it and understand it as a tool - as a software dev it seem's I "need" it in my toolbox.

Compared to most at work, I use it infrequently and only when I need to. Personally, I've been using it to learn Rust, but giving it what I want to achieve and then questioning - kind of like a mentor.

Show threadjnr in lifeJan 7
@andybalaam This has shown me that an LLM _can_ be powerful, but would be good to use in a different way. So, my thinking is to train my own, specifically for my needs - software languages. The internet has enough information that's got me by so far in my career, and I'm not seeing people build faster, but building more at low quality as well as using it to solve problems that can be achieved by communication, documentation and process